Barcelona will bring their preseason tour of the United States of America to an end this evening, as they take on New York Red Bulls. The Blaugrana will fly home from New York after the match.
Their fifth preseason friendly, kick off is scheduled for 01:00am CEST, as Xavi Hernandez tries to work out the best formula for the season ahead.
Sport believe that Xavi will go with more or less a ‘gala XI’ for this evening’s fixture, starting Robert Lewandowski up front. He continues to look for his first goal and will be flanked by Ansu Fati and Raphinha.
As the only natural full-backs in the squad, Jordi Alba and Sergino Dest will likely start. In central defence, Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia will continue as a pair. New signing Jules Kounde is awaiting the team’s return in Barcelona and thus isn’t available.
Barcelona still have another preseason match to come, playing Pumas in the Joan Gamper trophy on the 7th of August. Six friendlies are a significant amount, but with the new depth available to Xavi, he will be keen to ensure the whole squad is fighting fit. In addition, it gives him more information with which which to make his tricky selection decisions ahead of the start of the season.
Starting XI: Ter Stegen; Dest, Eric Garcia, Christensen, Alba; Pedri, Busquets, Gavi; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Ansu.
